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September 13, 2010

The beginner mindset

In 1998 IHRSA commissioned a study by Dr. Christine Brooks of the University of Michigan’s Fitness Research Center into why people don’t join health clubs. Dr. Brooks identified the following five fears that kept people out of health clubs:

1. The fear of feeling stupid.

2. The fear of feeling isolated.

3. The fear of looking and feeling like a klutz.

4. The fear of “Physique Anxiety” (the perception that one’s body is inferior/inadequate relative to others).

5. The fear of being “forced” to join.

Of course, none of this was a surprise to me. If you have read my recent report The Evolution of a Health Club Member you’ll know that this is precisely how beginners think.

Intermediate and advanced health club members have overcome these feelings and will focus on other elements of their health club experience but beginners are still as anxious, apprehensive, nervous, and intimidated as those poor souls Dr. Brooks surveyed.

It is a mistake to think that those beginners, who do join, are somehow so much more confident, resilient, empowered, and competent than those who are fearful of joining... they’re not.